Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A cellular wireless network may include a number of base stations that radiate to define wireless coverage areas, such as cells and cell sectors, in which user equipment devices (UEs) such as cell phones, tablet computers, tracking devices, embedded wireless modules, and other wirelessly equipped communication devices, can operate. In turn, each base station may be coupled with network infrastructure that provides connectivity with one or more transport networks, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or a packet-switched network such as the Internet for instance. With this arrangement, a UE within coverage of the network may engage in air interface communication with a base station and may thereby communicate via the base station with various remote network entities or with other UEs.
When a cellular wireless network serves UEs, the network may allocate various resources to facilitate communication to and from the UEs. In an example arrangement, for instance, the network may allocate “bearers” that define physical or logical communication channels extending between the UEs and a transport network. Each such bearer may include a radio-bearer component that extends between a UE and a serving base station and an access-bearer component that extends between the serving base station and the transport network. Further, each such bearer may have an associated service level, such as “best effort” or “guaranteed bit rate” for instance, to support a particular quality of service (QOS) or type of service.
In an example arrangement, a UE may subscribe to service with a network service provider and the UE's subscription may define a service plan that allows the UE to engage in particular types of communication at particular service levels. For instance, the UE's service plan may specify that for particular types of communication such as voice and other real-time data communication, the UE is entitled to engage in communication at a particular guaranteed bit rate, whereas for other types of communication such as file transfers and non-real time messaging services, the UE is entitled to engage in communication at merely a best effort service level according to which the network would serve the UE with whatever bit rate it can from time to time. Further, the UE's service profile may define other service level parameters beyond bit rate. In practice, the network may store a service profile record for the subscriber in a policy profile server such as a home subscriber server (HSS), and the network may then apply that service profile for the UE.
In the example arrangement, the network may also include a gateway that functions to provide connectivity with the transport network. When a UE enters into coverage of the network, the UE may engage in a registration or “attachment” process, through which the network authenticates the UE and the network establishes at least one bearer for the UE. In this process, the gateway may engage in signaling with the policy profile server to obtain a copy of the UE's service profile record and may store that record locally for reference. As data traffic then passes to and from the UE through the gateway, the gateway may then enforce the UE's service level as defined by the UE's service profile record.
For example, if the UE's service profile specifies that the UE is guaranteed to engage in data communication at a particular guaranteed bit rate, the gateway may work to ensure that data being communicated to or from the UE flows at least at that guaranteed bit rate. As another example, if the UE's service profile specifies that the UE is entitled to engage in data communication at up to a maximum bit rate, the gateway may work to ensure that data flowing to or from the UE does not flow at greater than that maximum bit rate. And as still another example, if the UE's service level specifies that the UE is allowed to engage in data communication at a “best effort” service level, the gateway may permit data to flow to and from the UE at whatever bit rate the gateway can support from time to time.
Furthermore, during the attachment process or at some other time, the gateway and/or another network element may transmit to the UE a specification of the UE's service profile, so that the UE can apply consistent service level restrictions. For example, if the service profile specifies that the UE is entitled to engage in a particular type of data communication at up to a maximum bit rate, the UE may limit its transmission of that type of data to be at no higher than that specified maximum bit rate.